Questionable Sirius advertisement terms and conditions

I received an ad from Sirius that didn't make much sense. You all might have seen it also. Concerning today's free radio offer, it appears that the deal requires only a 3 month subscription but the fine print states that there's a cancellation fee when cancelled prior to 12 months. Image of ad on bottom.

When I contacted Sirius, they added a few MORE terms to the deal not listed in the ad, stating you needed an existing account and the radio would be an additional one.
From the email:
"Dear Mr. XXXXXX,

Thank you for contacting SiriusXM regarding your inquiry.

In response to your concern, the free radio comes with a 3 month subscription which is an additional radio top your account. In addition, you need to keep the radio for at least a year to avoid the $75 cancellation fee, if you decide to cancel the service. We invite you to call our Listener Care hotline below for further assistance."sirius.jpg

What's up with this? How can one ever decide to buy into such a deal if it is presented in such a confusing way?

I tend to agree but, this problem isn't unique to SiriusXM, you see this same kind of crap from subscription based business everywhere. Especially cellphone providers. You can't signup, get your free phone, and then cancel your service.

That said, I dont think this particular offer is confusing.

1. This deal is for existing subscribers so, its obvious to me that this is for a second radio.
2. It doesnt say a 3 month subscription is required for the offer, it says that a minimum 3 month recurring subscription required. In other words, you can't signup for a monthly plan and take advantage of the deal.

Maybe my bullshit radar is better calibrated to pick up on stuff. I dont doubt that people are "tricked" by this type of marketing all the time.

I wasn't tricked by the offer, more just frightened off. I am not a subscriber to Sirius at all, the email hit my spam folder and I decided to read through it since I was mildly interested. Maybe I got the email by mistake, I can see how the email might be better received by someone with the service already. For me, the offer sounded great to try Sirius for 3 months with a free radio, it turned to not so great with the inclusion of a 12 month minimum service with the auto renew option.

Were you ever a subscriber? Very strange that you received the email to begin with when its an offer exclusive to current subscribers. How did you get on their mailing list?

If you want to try SiriusXM, they have a free 7-day online trial offer http://www.siriusxm.com/freetrial AND they now offer a free 3 months in just about any car with a factory satellite radio. Hell if you found a radio and gave them a call, I bet they would give you 3 months free to try it out.